Marchese Computer Products, Inc.

07/14/2026

Windows 10 hit end of life on October 14, 2025. Microsoft stopped sending free security updates that day.

Every new vulnerability discovered since then sits unpatched on every Windows 10 machine that isn't enrolled in Microsoft's paid Extended Security Updates program. The list grows every month. Attackers know exactly which versions of Windows have which holes, and they go after the easiest ones first.

If you still have Windows 10 machines in your business, you have three options.

Upgrade to Windows 11. Most computers made in the last 4 to 5 years can run it. The upgrade itself is free if your license is genuine. The main cost is the time to plan it. For most businesses this is the right answer.

Pay for Extended Security Updates. Microsoft sells ESU to businesses at $61 per device for year one. That price doubles in year two and again in year three. ESU keeps the patches coming, but the vulnerability count keeps climbing and you pay more each year to stay current.

Replace the hardware. If a computer can't run Windows 11, it's old enough that it was due for replacement anyway. The longer you wait, the more it costs you in lost productivity.

The one option that isn't on the list is keeping Windows 10 and hoping nothing happens.

07/14/2026

Are you confident your cybersecurity would hold up if someone asked you about it?

It’s not something most business owners spend time thinking about.

It tends to come up in the moment. A client asks how their data is protected, a regulator wants more detail, or you hear about another business having a problem and it gets you wondering how you would respond.

That’s usually when a few important questions surface… and the answers aren’t always as clear as they should be.

Our latest guide looks at what “advanced cybersecurity” really means. It explains how expectations have changed, what good protection looks like now, and how to get a clearer understanding of where your business stands.

Download your free copy now.

07/13/2026

Medtronic Notifies 3.8 Million After ShinyHunters Data Breach -

Medtronic says a ShinyHunters attack exposed the personal and medical data of over 3.8 million people. Products and operations were unaffected.

07/13/2026

If someone asks whether your business has backups, you probably say yes. Disaster recovery is a different question.

A backup is a copy of your data. Disaster recovery is the plan that brings your business back to running condition after something goes wrong. The two get confused all the time, and the confusion costs real money when ransomware or a hardware failure hits.

A good backup setup follows the 3-2-1-1-0 rule: three copies of every important file, on two different types of storage, with one copy stored offsite, one copy that's immutable so ransomware can't encrypt it, and zero errors in your last test restore.

That last one is what most businesses skip. Untested backups are not backups.

They're an unverified promise.

Pick a normal file, an email, and a full server volume, then try to restore each one to a different location.

If the restore works, you have backups. If it doesn't, you have a problem you can fix today instead of during an attack.

Disaster recovery goes one layer further. It's the playbook for what your business does when it can't function. Things like which systems come back first, which people make decisions, which vendors get called, and how long each step is supposed to take. Without that playbook, even a working backup leaves you guessing during the worst week of your year.

07/13/2026

Files piling up on desktops? It feels easy… but it could be putting your business at risk…

07/12/2026

In April 2026, ransomware hit Adaptavist, an Atlassian platinum partner that builds and supports tools for thousands of business customers.

Adaptavist makes ScriptRunner and similar add-ons that plug into Atlassian products like Jira and Confluence. When attackers got into Adaptavist's systems, every customer connected to those tools was suddenly downstream of a breach they didn't cause.

This is the supply chain attack pattern. Your business doesn't have to be the target. It just has to share a vendor with the target.

Three things worth doing this month:

-Make a one-page list of every SaaS vendor your business depends on. Email, accounting, payroll, CRM, helpdesk, file storage, project management. The list is usually longer than you'd expect.
-For each vendor, find their security and breach notification page online. If you can't find it in five minutes, that's information worth knowing.
-For the top five vendors by data sensitivity, ask three questions in writing: do you have a current SOC 2 Type II report, what's your breach notification SLA, and how do you handle credentials inside your support tooling.

You can't control every vendor's security. Pick the ones that take it seriously.

: Fake emails already doing the rounds as ransomware crew boasts about what it allegedly stole

07/12/2026

If you use a Windows PC every day, there’s one thing you probably open without even thinking about it.

File Explorer.

It’s how you find files, move things around, open folders… basically the backbone of getting work done on your computer.

And if it’s slow or glitchy, you feel it right away 😡

That’s why this update to Windows 11 is more important than it sounds…

Microsoft is working on a tune-up of File Explorer.

And it’s all about speed and reliability.

Early testing showed it opens faster, especially when you first launch it after starting your PC.

That alone makes a difference, because those little delays add up across the day.

There’s also a fix for something that’s been annoying people for a while. Can you guess what it is? 🤔

If you use dark mode, you might have noticed random white flashes when opening folders or switching views.

They’ve finally sorted that 🥳

There are a few practical improvements too.

You’ll be able to open more types of compressed files (things like ZIP files, but in different formats) without needing extra software.

And File Explorer itself should behave more reliably, especially when closing windows or switching between tasks.

That’s important, because when it misbehaves, it can affect other parts of Windows like the taskbar.

These changes are already being rolled out now. Have you noticed any difference yet?

Things might feel a bit quicker, smoother, and a little less frustrating.

And that’s where the real productivity gains come from.

👉 Does File Explorer feel quick and reliable for you, or is it one of those things you’ve learned to tolerate?

07/11/2026

Your incident response plan needs to live on paper, because the second you need it, your computers and email are the thing that's broken.

A one-page version beats nothing. The most important piece is the contact list, because those are the phone numbers you can't get to once your systems are down. Print this list and keep one copy at the office and one at home.

Six contacts to have on paper:

1. Your cyber insurance broker. They open the door to every other resource your policy covers. Save the after-hours line, not just the main number.
2. Your breach attorney. Not your business attorney. A specialist in cyber incidents. Their first job is to create legal privilege over the response.
3. Your incident response firm. If your insurance assigns one, save the IR firm's name and 24/7 line on this same page.
4. Your IT provider or MSP. Direct line for the senior engineer, not the front desk.
5. Law enforcement. FBI IC3 (1-800-CALL-FBI / ic3.gov) and your state cyber unit if you have one.
6. Two business lifelines. Your bank's fraud line and your payroll provider's emergency line. Both can freeze transactions if an attack is in progress.

Once ransomware locks your email and laptops, the only contact list you can reach is the one you printed.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

07/11/2026

Microsoft isn’t just adding AI features here and there.

It’s buying the companies that already do this stuff really well…

And bringing them straight into its ecosystem 🤖

Recently, it acquired Fintool.

It’s a smaller startup, so this isn’t one of those headline-grabbing billion-dollar deals.

But what they built is genuinely interesting.

Fintool created AI tools designed for finance professionals.

Software that can read through things like company reports, earnings calls, and financial documents, then pull out the important bits for you 🧠

Instead of someone spending hours digging through pages of information, the AI does the heavy lifting and finds the important bits.

Their latest version goes a step further.

It can carry out tasks in the background, like helping build financial models in Excel or preparing presentations in PowerPoint.

That’s where this gets interesting for everyday businesses.

Because now this technology is moving into Microsoft 365.

And once it’s there, it won’t stay limited to finance.

It tends to follow a familiar path 👉

Start with a specialist use case… refine it… then expand it into tools that everyone uses.

So, what begins as something for analysts ends up helping with things like reports, summaries, forecasts, and decision-making across all kinds of roles.

You can already see where this is heading.

Less time spent reading and pulling information together, more time spent deciding what to do with it.

While AI can help you write faster and make better slides, the real benefits come from it processing large amounts of information and handing you something useful to work with.

Of course, there’s a balance to strike ⚖️

These tools are powerful, but they’re not perfect. You still need someone applying judgment, especially when the stakes are high.

It’s an assistant, not a replacement.

💭 Would you trust AI to pull together insights for you, or would you still want to check everything yourself first?

07/10/2026

SkillCloak Lets Malicious AI Agent Skills Evade Static Scanners with Self-Extracting Packing -

Learn how malicious AI agent skills easily bypass static scanners. Discover how runtime checking secures tools like Claude Code and OpenClaw.